Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion developed by Siddhartha Gotama Buddha, who was born around 566 BC in Lumbini, in modern-day Nepal. After living a life of privilege, then giving it up for a life of asceticism, Siddhartha became "enlightened," or "awakened," to the idea that the only way to escape suffering in life is through practicing deliberate non-attachment. Today, that initial meditation has led to the practice of Buddhism in about six percent of the world's population.

Buddhism, What is Buddhism? Beliefs, Facts, History and Quotes

Buddhism, one of the major
religions of the world, was founded by Siddhartha Gautama, the
Buddha, who lived in northern India from c. 560 to c. 480 BC. The time
of the Buddha was one of social and religious change, marked by the
further advance of Aryan civilization into the Ganges Plain, the
development of trade and cities, the breakdown of old tribal structures,
and the rise of a whole spectrum of new religious movements that
responded to the demands of the times. These movements were derived
from the Brahmanic tradition of Hinduism but
were also reactions against it. Of the new sects, Buddhism was the most
successful and eventually spread throughout India and most of Asia.

Today it is common to
divide Buddhism into two main branches. The Theravada, or "Way
of the Elders," is the more conservative of the two; it is
dominant in Sri Lanka, Burma, and Thailand. The Mahayana, or "Great
Vehicle," is more diverse and liberal; it is found mainly in
Taiwan, Korea, and Japan, and among Tibetan peoples, where it is
distinguished by its emphasis on the Buddhist Tantras. In recent
times both branches, as well as Tibetan Buddhism, have gained
followers in the West.

It is virtually impossible
to tell what the Buddhist population of the world is today;
statistics are difficult to obtain because persons might have
Buddhist beliefs and engage in Buddhist rites while maintaining folk
or other (Shinto, Confucian, Taoist, Hindu) religions. Such persons
might or might not call themselves or be counted as Buddhists.
Nevertheless, the number of Buddhists worldwide is frequently
estimated at between 300 million and 500 million.

What is Buddhism and What do Buddhists Believe?

Buddhism is one of the
leading world religions in terms of adherents, geographical
distribution, and socio-cultural influence. While largely an
"Eastern" religion, it is becoming increasingly popular and
influential in the Western world. It is a unique world religion in
its own right, though it has much in common with Hinduism in that
both teach Karma (cause-and-effect ethics), Maya (the illusory nature
of the world), and Samsara (the cycle of reincarnation). Buddhists
believe that the ultimate goal in life is to achieve "enlightenment"
as they perceive it.

To Buddhists, sentient
beings are trapped in an eternal cycle of death and rebirth
(samsara), characterized by continual dissatisfaction or suffering
(dukkha). Buddhism provides a practical set of teachings (the dharma)
designed to help sentient beings achieve a state of freedom from
dukkha. Buddhism teaches that individuals reincarnate involuntarily
and repeatedly in the world of samsara, a cyclic process which ends
for an individual when they attain Nirvana (Theravada) or
Enlightenment (Mahayana), either in a human body or immediately upon
death in their last involuntary cycle of samsara.

Do Buddhists Believe in God?

Some Buddhist scriptures
and some sects, like the Mahayana school, believe that gods exist,
but do not consider that knowledge crucial to an individual's
practice of Buddhist teachings since as incarnated beings, they too
are bound to the wheel of Samsara and thus it is pointless to submit
to them. The Buddha taught that we should not speculate about what we
cannot know, and that speculation about God is pointless. Buddhists'
priorities are release from suffering (by learning to cease striving
after objects of desire and avoiding objects of discomfort) and direct
experience of the true nature of reality. Many modern strains of
Buddhism are atheistic in nature, thus creating a paradox as to why
they are called a religion. They can be considered to be philosophies
of life. Certain denominations, such as the Mahayana tradition,
believe in Bodhisattvas, or quasi-divine cosmic beings that seek to
benefit others by remaining in a state of Samsara, or eternal rebirth.
These are prayed to, for advice and spiritual guidance, and often
venerated.

One doctrine agreed upon
by most branches of modern Buddhism is that "this world is not
created and ruled by a God." In general, Buddhists do not
believe in God.

The Buddha himself rejected metaphysical
speculation as a matter of principle, and his teachings focused entirely
on the practical ways to end suffering.

Buddhism Beliefs and History

Buddhism's founder,
Siddhartha Guatama, was born into royalty in India around 600 B.C.
As the story goes, he lived luxuriously, with little exposure to the
outside world. His parents intended for him to be spared from the
influence of religion and protected from pain and suffering. However,
it was not long before his shelter was penetrated, and he had an encounter
with an aged man, a sick man, and a corpse — things of which he had
previously had no knowledge of. His fourth vision was of a peaceful
ascetic monk (one who denies luxury and comfort). These depressed him,
and he initially strove to overcome ageing, sickness, and death by
living the life of an ascetic. He abandoned his life of wealth and
affluence to pursue enlightenment through austerity. He was skilled at
this sort of self-mortification and intense meditation. He was a leader
among his peers. After nearly starving himself to death by restricting
his food intake to around a leaf or nut per day, he collapsed in a river
while bathing and almost drowned. Eventually, his efforts culminated in
one final gesture. He sat himself beneath a fig tree (also called the
Bodhi tree) to meditate till he either reached enlightenment or died
trying. Despite his travails and temptations, after a reputed 49 days of
meditation, at the age of 35, he is said to have attained Enlightenment.
Thus, he became known as the "Enlightened One" or the "Buddha."
He took his new realization and began to teach his fellow monks, with
whom he had already gained great influence. Five of his peers became
the first of his disciples.

What had Gautama
discovered? Enlightenment lay in the "middle way," a
path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and
self-mortification. Moreover, according to Buddhism, at the time
of his awakening he realized complete insight into the cause of
suffering, and the steps necessary to eliminate it. These
discoveries became known as the "Four Noble Truths", which
are at the heart of Buddhist teaching. Through mastery of these
truths, a state of supreme liberation, or Nirvana, is believed to be
possible for any being. The Buddha described Nirvāna as the
perfect peace of a mind that's free from ignorance, greed, hatred and
other afflictive states, or "defilements" (kilesas).
Nirvana is also regarded as the "end of the world", in that
no personal identity or boundaries of the mind remain. In such a
state, a being is said to possess the Ten Characteristics, belonging
to every Buddha.

The "Four
Noble Truths" are—1) to live is to suffer (Dukha),
2) suffering is caused by desire (Tanha, or "attachment"),
3) one can eliminate suffering by eliminating all attachments, and
4) this is achieved by following the noble eightfold path. The
"eightfold path" consists of having a right 1) view, 2)
intention, 3) speech, 4) action, 5) livelihood, 6) effort (properly
direct energies), 7) mindfulness (meditation), and 8) concentration
(focus). The Buddha's teachings were collected into the Tripitaka or
"three baskets."

Behind these
distinguishing teachings are teachings common to Hinduism, namely
reincarnation, karma, Maya or Māyā, and a tendency to understand
reality as being pantheistic in its orientation. Buddhism also offers
an elaborate theology of deities and exalted beings. However, like
Hinduism, Buddhism can be hard to pin down as to its view of God.
Some streams of Buddhism could legitimately be called atheistic,
while others could be called pantheistic, and still others theistic,
such as "Pure Land Buddhism". Classical Buddhism, however,
tends to be silent on the reality of an ultimate being and is
therefore considered atheistic.

Buddhism today is quite
diverse. It is roughly divisible into the two broad categories of
Theravada (small vessel) and Mahayana (large vessel). Theravada is
the monastic form which reserves ultimate enlightenment and nirvana
for monks, while Mahayana Buddhism extends this goal of enlightenment
to the laity as well, that is, to non-monks. Within these categories
can be found numerous branches including Tendai, Vajrayana, Nichiren,
Shingon, Pure Land, Zen, and Ryobu, among others. Therefore it is
important for outsiders seeking to understand Buddhism not to presume
to know all the details of a particular school of Buddhism when all
they have studied is classical, historic Buddhism.

The Buddha
never considered himself to be a god or any type of divine being.
Rather, he considered himself to be a 'way-shower' for others. Only
after his death was he exalted to god status by some of his
followers, though not all of his followers viewed him that way. With
Christianity however, it is stated quite clearly in the Bible that
Jesus was the Son of God (Matthew 3:17: "And a voice from heaven
said, 'This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased'")
and that He and God are one (John 10:30). One cannot rightfully
consider himself or herself a Christian without professing faith in
Jesus as God.

Jesus taught that He is
the way and not simply one who showed the way as John 14:6 confirms:
"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the
Father except by me." By the time Guatama died, Buddhism had
become a major influence in India; three hundred years later,
Buddhism had encompassed most of Asia. The scriptures and sayings
attributed to the Buddha were written about four hundred years after
his death.

In Buddhism, sin is
largely understood to be ignorance. And, while sin is understood as
"moral error," the context in which "evil" and
"good" are understood is amoral. Karma is understood as
nature's balance and is not personally enforced. (Karma is action or
deed, seen as bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad,
either in this life or in a reincarnation). Nature is not moral;
therefore, karma is not a moral code, and sin is not ultimately
immoral. Thus, we can say, by Buddhist thought, that our error is not
a moral issue since it is ultimately an impersonal mistake, not an
interpersonal violation. The consequence of this understanding is
devastating. For the Buddhist, sin is more akin to a misstep than a
transgression against the nature of a holy God. This understanding of
sin does not accord with the innate moral consciousness that men
stand condemned because of their sin before a holy God (Romans 1-2).

Since it holds that sin is
an impersonal and fixable error, Buddhism does not agree with the
doctrine of depravity, a basic doctrine of Christianity. The Bible
tells us man's sin is a problem of eternal and infinite consequence.
In Buddhism, there is no need for a Savior to rescue people from
their damning sins. "There is no almighty God in Buddhism.
There is no one to hand out rewards or punishments on a supposedly
Judgement Day. Buddhism is strictly not a religion in the context
of being a faith and worship owing allegiance to a supernatural
being." (BuddhaNet - Worldwide Buddhist Information and
Education Network).

For the Christian, Jesus is the
only means of rescue from eternal damnation. For the Buddhist there
is only ethical living and meditative appeals to exalted beings for
the hope of perhaps achieving enlightenment and ultimate Nirvana. More
than likely, one will have to go through a number of reincarnations
to pay off his or her vast accumulation of karmic debt. For the true
followers of Buddhism, the religion is a philosophy of morality and
ethics, encapsulated within a life of renunciation of the ego-self.
In Buddhism, reality is impersonal and non-relational; therefore, it
is not loving. Not only is God seen as illusory, but, in dissolving
sin into non-moral error and by rejecting all material reality as
maya ("illusion"), even we ourselves lose our "selves."
Personality itself becomes an illusion.

When asked how the world
started, who/what created the universe, the Buddha is said to have
kept silent because in Buddhism there is no beginning and no end.
Instead, there is an endless circle of birth and death. One would
have to ask what kind of Being created us to live, endure so much
pain and suffering, and then die over and over again? It may cause
one to contemplate, what is the point, why bother? Christians know
that God sent His Son to die for us, one time, so that we do not have
to suffer for an eternity. He sent His Son to give us the knowledge
that we are not alone and that we are loved. Christians know there is
more to life than suffering, and dying, "… but it has now
been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who
has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light
through the gospel" (2 Timothy 1:10).

Buddhism teaches that
Nirvana is the highest state of being, a state of pure being, and it
is achieved by means relative to the individual. Nirvana defies
rational explanation and logical ordering and therefore cannot be
taught, only realized. Jesus' teaching on heaven, in contrast, was
quite specific. He taught us that our physical bodies die but our
souls ascend to be with Him in heaven (Mark 12:25). The Buddha taught
that people do not have individual souls, for the individual self or
ego is an illusion. For Buddhists there is no merciful Father in
heaven who sent His Son to die for our souls, for our salvation, to
provide the way for us to reach His glory. Ultimately, that is why
Buddhism is to be rejected.

Self-Refuting Nature of Buddhism

Pantheism (e.g. Buddhism,
Hinduism, Taoism, et al.) is self-refuting, especially all forms that
claim individuality is an illusion caused by my mind. For according
to pantheism, individual minds are themselves aspects of the illusion
and can therefore provide no basis for explaining it.

If the mind is part of the
illusion, it cannot be the ground for explaining the illusion. Hence,
if pantheism is true in asserting that my individuality is an
illusion, then pantheism is false, since there is no basis for
explaining the illusion.

Pantheism also fails to
handle the problem of evil in a satisfactory manner. To pronounce
evil an illusion or as less than real is not only frustrating and
hollow to those experiencing evil, but it seems philosophically
inadequate. If evil is not real, then what is the origin of the
illusion? Why have people experienced it for so long, and why does it
seem so real? Despite the pantheist's claim to the contrary, he or
she also experiences pain, suffering, and eventually will die. Even
pantheists double-over in pain when they get appendicitis. They jump
out of the way of an on-coming truck so as not to get hurt.

If God is all, and all is
God, as pantheists maintain, then evil is an illusion and ultimately
there are no rights and wrongs. For there are four possibilities
regarding good and evil in a Pantheistic belief structure (as opposed
to the one true explanation of evil):

1) If God is all-good,
then evil must exist apart from God. But this is impossible since God
is all - nothing can exist apart from It.

2) But if God is all-evil,
then good must exist apart from God. This is not possible either,
since God is in all.

3) God is both all-good
and all-evil. This cannot be, for it is self-contradictory to affirm
that the same being is both all good and all evil at the same time.
Further, most pantheists agree that God is beyond good and evil.
Therefore God is neither good nor evil.

4) Good and evil are
illusory. They are not real categories.

Option four is what most
pantheists believe. But if evil is only an illusion, then ultimately
there is no such thing as good and evil thoughts or actions. Hence,
what difference would it make whether we praise or curse, counsel or
rape, love or murder someone? If there is no final moral difference
between those actions, absolute moral responsibilities do not exist.
Cruelty and non-cruelty are ultimately the same. One critic made the
point with this illustration:

"One day I was
talking to a group of people in the digs of a young South African in
Cambridge. Among others, there was present a young Indian who was of
Sikh background but a Hindu by religion. He started to speak strongly
against Christianity, but did not really understand the problems of
his own beliefs. So I said, 'Am I not correct in saying that on the
basis of your system, cruelty and non-cruelty are ultimately equal,
that there is no intrinsic difference between them?' He agreed. The
student in whose room we met, who had clearly understood the
implications of what the young Sikh had admitted, picked up his
kettle of boiling water with which he was about to make tea, and
stood with it steaming over the Indian's head. The man looked up and
asked him what he was doing and he said, with a cold yet gentle
finality, 'There is no difference between cruelty and non-cruelty.'
Thereupon the Hindu walked out into the night."

If pantheists are correct
that reality is not moral, that good and evil, right and wrong, are
inapplicable to what is, then to be right is as meaningless as to be
wrong. The foundation for morality is destroyed. Pantheism does not
take the problem of evil seriously. If you do not take the
distinctions between good and bad seriously, then it is easy to say
that anything you find in this world is a part of God. But, of
course, if you think some things really bad, and God really good,
then you cannot talk like that.

Pantheism's "god"
is unknowable. The very claim, "God is unknowable in an
intellectual way," seems either meaningless or self-defeating.
For if the claim itself cannot be understood in an intellectual way,
then it is self-defeating. For what is being affirmed is that nothing
can be understood about God in an intellectual way. But the pantheist
expects us to intellectually know this truth that God cannot be
understood in an intellectual way. In other words, the pantheist
appears to be making a statement about God to the effect that no such
statements can be made about God. But how can one make a positive
affirmation about God which claims that only negative affirmations
can be made about God? Plotinus admitted that negative knowledge
presupposes some positive awareness. Otherwise, one would not know
what to negate.

Since all that God made is
good, even those things which appear evil only appear that way
because of a limited context or perspective. When viewed as a whole,
that which appears to be evil ultimately contributes to the greater
good.

For example, certain
virtues couldn't exist without evil: courage, mercy, forgiveness,
patience, the giving of comfort, heroism, perseverance, faithfulness,
self-control, long-suffering, submission and obedience, to name a
few. These are not virtues in the abstract, but elements of character
that can only be had by moral souls. Just as evil is a result of acts
of will, so is virtue. Acts of moral choice accomplish both.

What good comes out of a
drive-by killing, someone might ask, or the death of a teenager
through overdose, or a daughter's rape, or child abuse? The answer is
that a commensurate good doesn't always come perceptibly out of those
individual situations, though God is certainly capable of redeeming
any tragedy. Rather, the greater good results from having a world in
which there is moral freedom, and moral freedom makes moral tragedies
like these possible.

This observation reveals
an interesting twist in this problem. If morality freely chosen can
only happen in a world where evil is possible, then heaven will be a
place where there will be no moral growth, where moral choices will
not be possible because all the inhabitants of heaven will be
immutably good. Growth of the soul is only possible and available to
inhabitants of a fallen world.

Two Scriptural
observations lend credibility to this view. First, in recounting the
great heroes of faith, the writer of Hebrews mentions that some were
rescued by faith, but others endured by faith "... in order that
they might obtain a better resurrection." (Heb. 11:35) Second,
St. Paul tells St. Timothy that "... godliness is profitable for
all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for
the life to come." (1 Tim. 4:8)

Both of these verses
indicate that conditions in this life affect conditions in the next.
Bearing up under evil in this life improves our resurrection in the
next. Godliness in this life brings profit in the next. These
benefits are not available after this life or there would be little
urgency to grow now; all eternity would be left in which to catch up.

A deeper, more profound
good results when virtue is won by free, moral souls struggling with
evil, rather than simply granted to them as an element of their
constitution.

There's a sound reason why
God has allowed man the freedom to choose evil. It doesn't conflict
with His goodness. God is neither the author of evil, nor its
helpless victim. Rather, precisely because of His goodness He chooses
to co-exist with evil for a time, that His goodness may be all the
more manifest in those who overcome it by freely choosing to do good
and avoid evil.

Romans 8:28: "And we
know that to them that love God, all things work together unto good,
to such as, according to his purpose, are called to be saints."

Criticism of Buddhism

The fundamental tenets of
Buddhism are marked by grave defects that not only betray its
inadequacy to become a religion of enlightened humanity, but also
bring into bold relief its inferiority to the religion of Jesus
Christ. In the first place, the very foundation on which Buddhism
rests—the doctrine of karma with its implied
transmigrations—is gratuitous and false. (Karma is action or deed,
seen as bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad,
either in this life or in a reincarnation). This pretended law of
nature, by which the myriads of gods, demons, men, and animals are but
the transient forms of rational beings essentially the same, but forced
to this diversity in consequence of varying degrees of merit and demerit
in former lives, is a huge superstition in flat contradiction to the
recognized laws of nature, and hence ignored by men of science.

Another basic defect in
Buddhism is its failure to recognize man's dependence on a supreme
God. By ignoring God and by making salvation rest solely on personal
effort, Buddha substituted for the Brahmin religion a cold and
colourless system of philosophy. It is entirely lacking in those
powerful motives to right conduct, particularly the motive of love,
that spring from the consecration of religious men and women to the
dependence on a personal all-loving God. Hence it is that Buddhist
morality is in the last analysis a selfish utilitarianism. There is
no sense of duty, as in the religion of Christ, prompted by reverence
for a supreme Lawgiver, by love for a merciful Father, by personal
allegiance to a Redeemer.

Karma, the basis of
Buddhist morality, is like any other law of nature, the observance of
which is prompted by prudential considerations. Not infrequently one
meets the assertion that Buddha surpassed Jesus in holding out to
struggling humanity an end utterly unselfish. This is a mistake. Not
to speak of the popular Swarga, or heaven, with its positive, even
sensual delights the fact that Nirvana is a negative ideal of bliss
does not make it the less an object of interested desire. Far from
being an unselfish end, Nirvana is based wholly on the motive of
self-love. It thus stands on a much lower level than the Christian
ideal, which, being primarily and essentially a union of friendship
with God in heaven, appeals to motives of disinterested as well as
interested love.

Another fatal defect of Buddhism is its
false pessimism. A strong and healthy mind revolts against the morbid
view that life is not worth living, that every form of conscious
existence is an evil. Buddhism stands condemned by the voice of
nature the dominant tone of which is hope and joy. It is a protest
against nature for possessing the perfection of rational life. The
highest ambition of Buddhism is to destroy that perfection by
bringing all living beings to the unconscious repose of Nirvana.
Buddhism is thus guilty of a capital crime against nature, and in
consequence does injustice to the individual. The Buddhist ideal on
earth is a state of passive indifference to everything—even to
God Himself. How different is the teaching of Him who came that men
might know who God is so that they may have life and have it more
abundantly!

I am a Buddhist, Why Should I Consider Becoming a Christian?

Answer: Compared with Buddhism,
Christianity has several distinguishing features which show that it
deserves consideration.

First, while both
Christianity and Buddhism each have an historical central figure,
namely Jesus and Buddha,
only Jesus is shown to have risen from the dead. Many people in
history have been wise teachers with profound philosophy of life. But
Jesus stands out amongst them, and He has confirmed His spiritual
teachings with a test that only divine power could pass. Jesus' body
of teachings are confirmed by the death and resurrection of His
literal body—a fact which He prophesied and fulfilled in
Himself (Matthew 16:21; 20:18-19; Mark 8:31; 1 Luke 9:22; John 20-21;
1 Corinthians 15). Jesus deserves special consideration.

Second, the Christian
Scriptures are historically outstanding, deserving serious
consideration. One could even say that the history of the Bible is so
compelling that to doubt the Bible is to doubt history itself since
it is the most historically verifiable book of all antiquity. The
only book more historically verifiable than the Old Testament (the
Hebrew Bible) is the New Testament. Consider the following:

1) More manuscripts exist
for the New Testament than for any other of antiquity—5000
ancient Greek manuscripts, 24,000 in all including other languages.
The multiplicity of manuscripts allows for a tremendous research base
by which we can test the texts against each other and identify what
the originals said.

2) The manuscripts of the
New Testament are closer in age to the originals than are any other
document of antiquity. All of the originals were written within the
time of the contemporaries (eyewitnesses), in the first century AD,
and we currently have parts of manuscript as old as 125 AD. Whole
book copies surface by 200 AD, and the complete New Testament can be
found dating back to 250 AD. Having all the books of the New
Testament initially written within the times of eyewitnesses means
that they did not have time to devolve into myth and folklore. Plus
their truth claims were held accountable by members of the Church
who, as personal witnesses to the events, could check the facts.

3) The New Testament
documents are more accurate than any other of antiquity. John R.
Robinson in his book "Honest to God" reports that the New
Testament documents are 99.9% accurate (most accurate of any complete
antique book). Bruce Metzger, an expert in the Greek New Testament,
suggests a more modest 99.5%. However, both the Old and New
Testaments are known to be 100% accurate for believers depending on
the sense scripture is to be understood: spiritually or corporeally.

Third, Christian ethics
has a stronger foundation than Buddhist ethics. Christian ethics is
founded in the personal character of God. God is personal and moral.
His nature is good, and therefore all actions which align with His
goodness are actually good. Whatever departs from His goodness is
actually evil. For Buddhists, however, ultimate reality is not
understood as personal. But morality by its very nature requires
personality. To illustrate, consider the morality of a rock. One does
not blame a rock for being used in a murder since it is not a person
with moral duties. Rather the moral duty lies with the person who
used that rock for evil purposes. Buddhism lacks the personal
framework for moral duty. With Buddhism, karma is the framework for
morality. But karma is impersonal. Breaking a karmic "rule"
is not intrinsically evil. There seems to be no significant
difference between error (non-moral mistakes) and sin (moral
wrongdoing).

Furthermore, many
Buddhists even assert that the dualities of "good" and
"evil" ultimately break down. "Good" and "evil"
would be part of maya, the illusory world of sensory reality. The
categories of morality are not grand enough to map onto ultimate
reality, and "enlightened" individuals will see that good
and evil blur into one. But such a position means that ultimate
reality would not be "good." It wouldn't be "evil"
either, but then what assurance exists that "ultimate reality"
is even a worthwhile pursuit? And what grounds would there be for
living a morally good life as opposed to an amoral life without
regard for moral distinctions, or an inactive life avoiding moral
choices as much as possible? If Buddhism asserts that reality is not
ultimately personal and the distinctions between good and evil are
not actually real, then Buddhism does not have a true foundation for
ethics. Christianity, on the other hand, can point on both counts to
the character of God as personally founding morality and providing a
basis for to distinguish good from evil.

Fourth, Christianity
rightly appreciates "desire." Buddhist ethics seems to have
a core difficulty at this point. Sakyamuni taught that tanha,
"desire" or "attachment," is the root of
suffering and is to be dissolved. But some admittedly good things are
based on the idea of desire. Love for example is "to desire the
good of another" (John 15:13; 1 John 4:7-12). One could not even
love unless one had a degree of attachment in desiring someone else's
well-being. In contrast, Christianity teaches that desire is good
when it is properly directed. Paul urges Christians to "desire
the greater gifts" of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:31; 14:1). In
the Psalms, we see pictures of worshipers longing for and desiring
fellowship with God (Psalm 42:1-2; 84). And of course, God does not
simply act loving, He is love (1 John 4:9; Psalm 136, John 3:16).
Sacrificing desire altogether seems to throw out the proverbial baby
(love) with the dirty bathwater (attachments that leads to
selfishness and sufferings). Attachment may indeed bring suffering in
the lives of people, examples of such is the inordinate attachment to
parents, the family or relatives (Matthew 10:37; Luke 14:26);
attachment to worthless material goods (Luke 12:13-21) and earthly
pleasures (Luke 14:16-28); and attachment to riches and honors (Matthew
6:21). However, attachments is not the root of suffering, it is rather
the misuse and inordinate love for these goods or persons that bring
about the suffering; because, as we saw above, attachment and desire for
"good" things is wholly good and praiseworthy.

Fifth is the question
"What do you do with your sin?" Buddhism has at least two
ideas of sin. Sin is sometimes understood as ignorance. It is sinful
if one does not see or understanding reality as Buddhism defines it.
However, in Buddhism, there is still an idea of moral error termed
"sin." To do something deliberately evil, to break a
spiritual or just earthly law, or to desire wrong things, these would
be identifiable sins. But, that latter definition of sin points to a
kind of moral error that requires real atonement. From where can
atonement rise? Can atonement come by adherence to karmic principles?
Karma is impersonal and amoral. One could do good works to even the
balance, but one cannot ever dispose of sin. Karma does not even
provide a context whereby moral error is even moral. Who have we
offended if we sin in private? Karma does not care one way or the
other because karma is not a person. Can atonement come by prayer or
devotion to a Bhodisattva or a Buddha? Even if those characters could
offer forgiveness, it seems like sin would still be left unpaid. They
would forgive sin showing it to be excusable; it is not a big deal.

Christianity, on the other
hand, has the only adequate theological view of sin. In Christianity
sin is moral error. Ever since the fall of Adam, humans have been
stained creatures through original sin. Sin is real. And it sets an
infinite gap between man and bliss. Sin demands justice. But it
cannot be "balanced out" with an equal or greater amount of
good works without atonement. If someone has ten times more good
works than bad works, then he or she still has bad works on their
conscience. What happens to these remaining bad works? Are they just
forgiven as if they were not a big deal in the first place? Are they
permitted into bliss? Are they mere illusions thus leaving no problem
whatsoever? None of these options are suitable.

Concerning illusion, sin
is too real to us to be explained away as illusion. Concerning our
sinfulness, when we are honest with ourselves we all know that we
have sinned. Concerning forgiveness, to simply forgive sin at no cost
treats sin like it is not of much consequence even though we know
that to be false. Concerning bliss, bliss is not much good if sin
keeps getting smuggled in. It seems like the scales of karma leave us
with sin on our hearts and bliss either cannot tolerate us, or it
must cease being perfect so that we can come in.

Christianity has an answer
for sin. No sin goes unpunished or unpaid, but the eternal punishment
has already been satisfied and paid in Christ's personal sacrifice on
the cross through faith in Him and baptism. God became man, lived a
perfect life, and died the death that we deserved. He was crucified
on our behalf, a substitute for us, and a covering, or atonement, for
our sins. Furthermore, He was resurrected, proving that not even death
could conquer Him. He promises the same resurrection unto eternal
life for all who put their faith in Him as their only Lord and Savior
(Romans 3:1023; 6:23; 8:12; 10:9-10; Ephesians 2:8-9; Philippians
3:21).

This is no "easy
believism" where God, like a janitor, just cleans up all our
mistakes. Rather, this is a life-long commitment where we take on a
new nature and begin a new relationship with God Himself (Romans 6:1;
Ephesians 2:1-10). When a person really believes God is who He says
He is in the Bible—and as He has defined Himself through His
Church—and really believes God did what He says He did in the
Bible, and a person puts his or her life on that belief—that
person is transformed. He becomes a new creation by the power of God
through receiving faith (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Nor is Jesus simply an answer among
many others. All the world's religions have some level of truth in
them, because the enemy of mankind could hardly deceive anyone unless
he mixed some truths with falsehoods, but ultimately, Jesus is the
only answer to the human condition. Meditation, good works,
prayer—none of these can make us worthy of the infinite and
eternal gift of heaven unless we cooperate with the natural law (the
moral law written on our heart) and abide by God's grace, for it is
only by God's grace that we can avoid the evil and do the good that
we desire—and in fact, have to do—to be Saved (2
Corinthians 12:9-12; Ephesians 2:8; Romans 11:6). That is why our own
works cannot save us unless God enables us to do them through His
grace. That is also why we must give all glory and merit to God alone
for all the good we do (Ephesians 3:20). If we do not we deceive
ourselves and attribute to ourselves what alone rightly belongs to
God. None of our own works can undo the sin we've done. Only when
Christ pays our sin debt and we place our faith in Him can we be
saved from eternal destruction. Only then is sin covered, hope
assured, and life filled with eternal meaning.

So, what does this mean
for you? Jesus is the ultimate reality! Jesus is the perfect
sacrifice for our sins. God offers all of us forgiveness and
salvation if we will simply receive His gift to us (John 1:12),
believing Jesus to be the Savior who laid down His life for us, His
friends. If you place your trust in Jesus as your Savior and die in
state of grace, you will have absolute assurance of eternal life in
Heaven. God will forgive your sins, cleanse your soul, renew your
spirit, give you abundant life in this world, and eternal life in the
next world. How can we reject such a precious gift? How can we turn
our backs on God who loved us enough to sacrifice Himself for us?

If you are unsure about
what you believe, we invite you to say the following prayer to God:
"God, help me to know what is true. Help me to discern what is
error. Help me to know what is the correct path to salvation."
God will always honor such a prayer.

If you
want to receive the faith and Jesus as your Savior, simply speak to
God, verbally or silently, receive baptism
(how to baptize and convert to the true Biblical Faith), obey
His
Church and His
Law, and tell Him that you want to receive the
free gift of salvation through Jesus, Our Lord and Savior. If you
want a prayer to say, here is an example: "God, thank you for
loving me. Thank you for sacrificing yourself for me. Thank you for
providing for my forgiveness and salvation. I want to accept the gift
of salvation through Jesus. I want to receive Jesus as my Savior.
Amen!"

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"And whosoever shall give to drink to one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, amen I say to you, he shall not lose his reward." Matthew 10:42